All the cliches are true. Life is precious. Life is short. Life is not fair. Life is what you make it.

Let’s talk about it. Life is precious: it is, each moment has a memory, whether it’s a happy one or sad one, or angry one, it is a moment in time. Moments are for memory, for writing, for Memoir. Take a slice of a day, shape it into a memory, and keep it close to your heart.

Life is short: damn right it is. One second can change your life. An accident, a doctor’s report, anything that upsets the balance of your life. Don’t waste time on what could be, or should be, just take what happens and sharpen your attitude. You attitude will get you through the toughest of times. I know, I’ve been there. I wrote Behind The Mask, using moments, documenting feelings and emotions, yet my husband’s sense of humor and my attitude got me through those awful seven years.

Life is not fair. Who ever said it was. Every day is a challenge we have to meet. Sometimes it is like being in a ring, only the ten rounds are never over. You get knocked down every which way. But you have to keep going.

Because life is what you make it. Attitude, perserverance, and love and kisses can help you through anything. Writing about your life is a carthartic process, it heals.

Be thankful for every moment in time. Beef up your attitude. Take good care of yoursef. Be yourself. Love who you are, and be the best you can be.

Keep a grateful list and list everything you are grateful for. See if you can get one hundred things written down on paper. Update the list and keep updating it until you have 200 things you are grateful for.

But, today I found some new websites and they are wonderful. I forgot to write down the names, but come back tomorrow and I will name them.

I’m feeling pretty good, getting things done, papers filed. Now it’s back to writing. I started a book several years ago, and I put it away, thinking I wasn’t ready to write it yet. One of the reasons I stopped, my heroine is too angry. So I think I will have to let the readers know why she is so angry, and then I can start the story. It means giving the reader a lot of information about the heroine at the very beginning, but I think it might be necessary. Otherwise, she won’t be likable.

I am so blessed to be back with my family. My grateful list just grows and grows and grows. As long as we keep our health, we will be fine.

Happiness is in the moment. This moment. The fact that I’m sitting here blogging makes me happy.

Write your memories, keep them close to your heart. Let your families know who you are, who you really are on the inside. Include your self in writing your Memoir.

Give something back. Do a kindness every day. Tell someone something nice. Pick up the phone and call an old friend. Skip the jokes, and write something on the email.

Adopt A Caregiver. Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Tell them your friend Helene Moore sent you. Don’t know how a new caregiver feels, read my book, Behind The Mask.

I had a very good day today. Felt good, did a lot of things that needed doing and I finished some old projects. I even started looking through my knitting so I could get started again doing something I love that happens to be so relaxing.

The bad part of the day was getting some bad news. A friend died today, alone in her apartment. She will be missed.

To all of you out there, remember each day has it’s good and not so good parts, but your attitude about them will help you through the bad times.

Do your best to make each day a memorable and wonderful day. Write your grateful list. Go out and Adopt A Caregiver. Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

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Today is our 57th Anniversary! And we are still smiling. Our life together has been an extraordinary one, something I take pride in. We taught the example to our children by living the example. I am so happy to report that my children and grandchildren have learned much from our example.

We moved back to California because of family and we are basking in the love of family around us. Good times and bad times call for family. We will always be there for each other.

Today’s grateful list includes my special card, the sun came out, we shopped, we had lunch with our daughter, I went to the bookstore (one of my favorite things to do) I am reading Lisa See’s new book, Shanghai Girls, and it’s very well written, and interesting. I do recommend this book.

If I didn’t read so much, I’d get more writing done, but it’s okay. I’m giving myself pemission.

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Not feeling so great today, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue. Tried to nap, and couldn’t fall asleep. Feeling better now. Seems mornings are not so great for me. I used to be a morning person.

Looks like the family isn’t getting tired of us .. I’m so glad.

I’ve been procrastinating about doing several tasks. I think I’d better do them tomorrow. Along with emails that I owe to some people, including my Adopt A Caregiver friends.

Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing, Adopt A Caregiver and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

My grateful list for today: The sun did come out, we had dinner with my daughter, her daughter and husband, Howard and I had a restful day, nether of us felt like doing very much, I’m grateful that we can do that if necessary. I’m grateful that I can write my blog, talk about Adopt A Caregiver, I feel blessed to have readers who come back to read my blog every day and I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

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Hard to admit, I am getting older. Does this sound familiar? I write everything down, sometimes I can’t find those little pieces of paper where I have jotted down notes or phone numbers.

I bring a list to the grocery store, usually buying other things as well. Takes a long time to put it all away. I date everything. My kids used to come and open the fridge and smell everything before they put it into their mouths.

Getting older isn’t for sissies. The gold in the golden years goes to the doctors. All the cliches are true.

So, what is it like for the caregiver. Someone who is hassled, harried, scared, alone, feeling abandened, exhausted, not knowing what the next day will bring, except more heartaches.

That’s why I say all the time: Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver, and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

My Grateful list for today: The sun came out, late, but it came out, I took a nap this afternoon, I did a lot of paperwork, and laid the work out for tomorrow. I watched a movie this afternoon with my husband. I feel better in the evenings than I do in the mornings, and that is something new, but I’m grateful that I feel goo some part of the day. I am grateful to be here with my husband and my family. I feel blessed, don’t you?

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Family. Nice to be close to them, and they can come over for dinner at the spur of the moment. I had invited them, and my daughter wasn’t sure she could make it. My granddaughter said she’d come either way, with her Mom or without her.

Special occasion? Yes! My granddaughter is pregnant, and went to the doctor today for an ultra sound, and came back with a DVD of the baby, this tiny baby. She is only three months pregnant, but the film was incredible. We had nothing like that in my day. I know, I’m old. My last baby was born over 50 years ago!

Tomorrow, our old neighbors from Califonia are here for the graduation of their daughter, and we are meeting for lunch. It will seem funny, we will be staying here, and they will be heading off to Georgia.

I’ve invited my kids and grandkids over on Sunday, to pick out the family photos they want to take for themselves. Should be fun…

I did get more done today than I thought I would. So that’s a good sign, I hope.

I’m so grateful for all the wonderful things in my life. Little things, like loving the apartment, seeing the kids more often, walking more than I did in Vegas. Just to walk to our car and back is a short walk, but it’s good for me. I’m grateful that I can still see, walk, be independent, be me, and do the things I want to do.

Soon, I will get back to Adopt A Caregiver. In the meantime, I’m getting my life back together and taking a breather.

Give the gfit that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver, and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

I’m so grateful for the little things in life. That’s what life is all about. For me, it’s husband, and family, then friends, sunshine, feeling okay with my Fibromyalgia, grateful that I slept a full night, that my CLL ( a form of Leukemia) is in a zero stage and that I can smile each and every day.

Right now, it’s harder to smile, doing so much work. Both physical and mental, hard on me, but we are making great progess It’s just about time to pack up my office. At least get it into boxes and out into the garage. It’s only about six weeks until our target date of moving.

I don’t have to tell anyone how much work there is to do in these next weeks. But it will get done. I am grateful that I don’t have to ask for help–yet.

I can’t wait to get back to writing. I saw a memoir list the other day and it had some good ideas in it. For instance, start with a gratitude list, then significant points in your life that were meaningful. Think about people who influenced you or mentored you, or were important in another way, good or bad. Take ten minutes a day and just free write, or pick a topic and don’t stop writing until the timer goes off. Carry around a small notebook and your favorite pen and jot down notes all day, wherever you are.

Remember to support caregivers. Adopt A Caregiver and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

And thank you to The Bloom Report and all the people responding to us.

I am grateful that I was able to finish so much paperwork, (with the help of my husband) today in my office. I was getting bogged down, and feeling a little bit brain dead, and he took over and finished it in record time. I also got done much more than I thought I would today, and I am grateful for that.

Tomorrow, I have my day laid out for me. I am grateful to be able to think how to plan my day. I can’t do that all the time, not when the Fibromyalgia kicks in.

I will designate part of the day in my office, read and watch tv. with my husband, and I plan on making a nice dinner. Something that will be a treat for both of us.

We are leaving on Wednesday for California..We will be gone until the following Monday. I am grateful that we both can drive half way. And I am grateful that the kids and grand kids want to see us. It’s going to be a great trip, and we are going to look for places to live. I am grateful that we are able to even think about that at our age.

Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregiver, and tell them your friend Helene sent you.

Be grateful for all you have, for all you are able to do and make tomorrow a good day.

Keep love and kisses in your life. Helene

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Every day a new set of decisions to make or think about. One set of decisions is about the story I’m writing. Should it be a short story, or a book? It’s a very emotional story, so keeping it short should make it more powerful, yet it deserves more details, why the characters are the way they are, and why they are reacting that way. Silly kinds of decisions, but decisions to make.

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Brain Fog, Restless Legs, and not enough sleep. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up exhausted, and by the time I’ve finished breakfast, I want to just sit in my lounge chair and sleep. That means every day I need to make a decision on how much I can try to do, and how to catch up on a good day. Like everything else, unless you stand in my shoes, you have no idea what this feels like. I have so many ‘lost’ days.

Caregivers feel that way too. Only they don’t have the luxury of being able to make the decision not to do too much. What a joke that would be. They have to do what they have to do.

We have to help them. We can help them. That’s why I published my secret journal, Behind The Mask, so you could learn what if feels like to stand in a new caregivers shoes.

Adopt A Caregiver was born when Behind The Mask was published. I am so grateful for this opportunity to give back. It’s such a simple plan, based on the community you live in, work in, or play in, or even go to school in. If you find out there is a caregiver in your midst, by all means, try to contact them, be their friend. Let them vent, talk, explain, and encourage them to educate you. Encourage them to journal, to email friends, to do small things, like write three things they are grateful for. Some days they won’t be able to come up with anything, but maybe other days they can come up with more than three things.

Today, I am grateful that I was able to meet my 85 year old dear friend for lunch. I am grateful that my husband wrote me a love note this morning and that he supports all my efforts in my Adopt A Caregiver program. Today, I am grateful that I am alive, the sun was shining and I have a family I can be proud of, as well as true friends.

Give the gift that lasts forever and costs nothing. Adopt A Caregive and tell them your friend Helene sent you.